Word: chernobyls
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...Chernobyl. In little more than a month, the name of a once obscure Soviet plant has become a global household word, a new entry on the list of late-20th century technological disasters and a rallying cry for all those who fear and oppose nuclear power. The April 26 explosion and fire that destroyed reactor No. 4 at the Chernobyl plant in the Ukraine spread radioactive fallout around much of the world. Now the accident is transforming the East-West political climate and perhaps altering diplomatic relations between the U.S. and its European allies...
...nuclear questions played a key role in the most widely watched Dutch election in years. During the campaign, Prime Minister Ruud Lubbers eased his stance on atomic power. Despite a strong commitment to expanding his country's nuclear capacity, Lubbers shrewdly delayed construction of two new plants following the Chernobyl calamity. That relieved Dutch anxieties aroused by the Soviet tragedy, and helped Lubbers' Christian Democrat party to score big gains...
...presidential campaign winds to an end, even the furor over Conservative Candidate Kurt Waldheim's wartime Nazi links has been overshadowed by the question of atomic power. Socialist Kurt Streyer, who faces Waldheim in a runoff June 8, stresses his commitment in new posters that proclaim, NO SECOND CHERNOBYL. Waldheim, the former United Nations Secretary-General, says he will use his diplomatic experience to get an international agreement on early and complete warning in case of atomic power accidents...
...shadow of Chernobyl affects much more than the future of nuclear power. It also raises questions about Western Europe's defense. The disaster has increased doubts about anything having to do with atomic technology; this threatens to create more rifts between the U.S. and its European allies, particularly about the installation of nuclear weapons. Says a senior West German official: "The political scale of Chernobyl is equal to the force of the accident itself. We know that people equate the threat of nuclear accidents with the disastrous potential of nuclear weapons...
Elsewhere, West German militants smashed windows and hurled rocks at police last week as 10,000 antinuclear demonstrators marched in Hamburg. But perhaps the most stunning response to the Chernobyl accident came from France, which relies on the atom for 65% of its electric power. After first assuring its citizens that the nuclear cloud had passed them by, the French government admitted last week that radiation readings in some regions had been 400 times as high as normal. While that was alarming enough, red-faced French officials compounded the problem by insisting that their failure to notify the public...